It's definitely the focus tested one.
>>59005192>meme face>meme name>only starter line that's based off a household pet and popular animal online>lends itself to marketing the easiest of the threeIt's not just "good design". Pokemon is a merch empire first, game franchise second. Every single starter design is run through numerous groups of people to ensure marketability, and Pombon, of the three, as clearly the most marketable because it's just a small red dog with a silly face. It could be a mascot for virtually anything.
Pokemon has done multiple bids of making mons for the express purpose of being hits on social media, with TCPI leaning into it (i.e Lechonk, Smoliv) and it's hard to beat the memeability of le heckin' can-you-pet-the doggo.
Anyone with half a brain is going to tell you that Pombon is gonna be the face of this gen, the next anime protag is just gonna "coincidentally" get it as a starter and it's gonna "coincidentally" have the best typing, stats, ability and movepool to make it the strongest of the three in comp, and everyone is gonna act surprised as if this shit wasn't decided years in advance, just like Greninja, Incin, Cinderace and Meows before it.
